- Hon Grant Robertson
- Hon Peeni Henare
The largest women’s sporting event in the world is now only 100 days from hitting New Zealand shores.
The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 is being co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia from 20 July to 20 August 2023.
“Co-hosting an event of this magnitude will generate huge social and economic benefits for New Zealand and leave a lasting legacy for football and women’s sport in this country,” Grant Robertson said.
“We are expecting thousands of international fans to come to New Zealand for the tournament. It is a great opportunity for us to showcase our unique culture and landscape,” Peeni Henare said.
“We also have an opportunity to raise Aotearoa’s profile through international broadcasting of the games. The FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019 saw a combined 1.1 billion viewers tune into official coverage across all platforms.”
Programmes running alongside the tournament will also ensure the event creates a lasting legacy for New Zealand’s women and girls in sport.
Thousands of young women across the country will be given the opportunity to develop their confidence, resilience and leadership skills thanks to a collaboration between GirlBoss New Zealand and the Ministry of Education.
The GirlBoss programme uses sport and the event as a platform to encourage young women to explore career pathways in psychology, sports science, advanced medicine, surgery and other related fields. They will also receive one-on-one mentoring sessions from a community of over 100 health and wellbeing professionals.
The GirlBoss Make Your Move initiative is the first project to be announced as part of the Government’s FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 leverage and legacy programme.
The Government has set aside $10 million to support projects that will help achieve outcomes in four key focus areas: Mana Wāhine (raising the profile of women and girls in sport and wider society), Te Tanagata (thriving communities), Te Ao (enhancing our international relationships), and Ōhanga (economic growth). This is in addition to the more than $19 million announced last year to support upgrades at 30 sporting facilities across the country.
New Zealanders who want to get amongst the action and watch some of the world’s best football players compete for the coveted trophy can purchase tickets from 2pm today at www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/tickets.
